Zero Tours: Unlimited Mysteries

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Around the globe in eighty days -- the Game Boy Advance is a world of possibilities.

By IGN Staff

Japan sure must love going on vacation, because not one, but two Game Boy Advance RPGs are all about taking a trip to a fantastic new world. First there's Brownie Brown's Magical Vacation a whimsical trip into another realm full of magic and imagination. But for those looking for even more exotic locales and outlandish natives, look no farther than Kigurumi -- just book a trip with Zero Tours, and you're there!

From Media Rings Corp. and developer Amedio comes Mugen Kikou Zero Tours, a fantasy RPG where you control your own fantasy. Gamers are tourists in this world, escorted by one of the many Tour Conductors they come across (who then join their party and become part of the adventure). It's really more of a safari than a vacation -- hunting Nuigurumin is fine sport, particularly because there are so many kinds to find in the wild. Ferret out your favorites, or spend a nice long trip and collect them all! Wait, that sounded familiar...

Sure enough, the Pokémon phenomenon has touched this game, but there's certainly enough originality in the voyage to give it a look (although, even though the game looks nice and colorful, there are no expectations that this one will make America). What makes Zero Tours an unlimited experience is that players are always meeting new Tour Conductors and joining them on other journeys. Fairies and local townies (divided into two races of people -- the animal-dressed Kigurumians and the fancy-pants Kosupureians) are eager for a fare, and will take you on fabulously bizarre places tucked away on the planet if you go with them and ditch your last Tour Guide. As part of your party, Tour Guides build experience and skills that will help them escort you to the more out-of-the-way locales.

Making connections in the game is the key to a great vacation -- collect up all the uncanny Nuigurumin you come across while meeting and journeying with the best Tour Guides to fulfill your wildest dreams. More interestingly than the people you meet in the game are the people you meet in real life while playing the game -- Zero Tours: Unlimited Mysteries is compatible with both the Mobile Adapter and standard Link Cable, and fellow day-trippers will do much more in the game than just exchange photo albums. Gamers will be able to exchange the Tour Guides they've met and adventured with along the way, so that the other player can experience some of the same remote wonders (and, if indications are true, traded Tour Guides may be able to escort their new customer to even further lands -- certain locked locales can only be reached with a traded Guide). You can also trade tools you find along the way, or exchange rare Nuigurumin -- the game even creates a special Fantasy City base to facilitate communication across Link or a Cell connection, complete with a Mansion to house all the tradable Tour Guides and a fully-playable Dungeon with your traded Nuigurumin roaming the grimy grounds.

This is yet another one of those neat Japanese RPGs that we'll probably never be seeing in the US, but the concept is certainly cute and original -- if Media Ring can soak every inch of the game world with the kind of inventiveness that's in the story (that's a tough task since the game map needs to be big enough to encompass all the possibilities) and can deliver exhilarating gameplay, maybe there's a chance that this might be an expedition for American gamers as well.